One toxic family. Eight suspicious guests. Everyone is guilty. But who is a killer?
Welcome to the McAlpine Lodge: a secluded mountain getaway, it’s the height of escapist luxury living.
Except that everyone here is lying. Lying about their past. Lying to their family. Lying to themselves.
Then one night, Mercy McAlpine – until now the good daughter – threatens to expose everybody’s secrets. Just hours later, Mercy is dead.
In an area this remote, it’s easy to get away with murder. But Will Trent and Sara Linton – investigator and medical examiner for the GBI – are here on their honeymoon.
What do you get when you mash a brilliantly atmospheric crime procedural with the vintage feel of a locked room murder? Almost perfection!!!
Will and Sara are on their honeymoon and still they manage to find a murder to solve. McAlpine Lodge is remote and beautiful but it hides a lot of secrets, the newest more shocking than the last. The story is told by slipping backwards in time occasionally to see parts of the story unfold as they are discovered in the current timeline. It really made for an interesting story.
Mercy, our victim, comes from the most toxic family I’ve ever had the misfortune to read about. I really wanted a shower after parts of the story were revealed. She isn’t the most sympathetic of victims and you really have to work sometimes to feel sorry she is gone!
There are some almighty twists and just when you think the murder is solved, there is one more twist to make you gasp.
Faith and Amanda all make an appearance to help solve the murder and I love this little family that Will has built for himself.
Ex-MI5 operative Joe Mason is on a mission to rescue a friend who has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, ancient coins – remnants of a Chinese casino buried for six hundred years – are starting to surface in Japan’s clandestine underworld.
Mason knows the coins and kidnapping are linked. Someone has finally unearthed the long-buried ancient casino, and its riches – both financial and archaeological – are now up for grabs. But hidden forces are desperate to conceal the discovery and take it for themselves, kidnapping and killing to silence anyone in their path.
In a high-stakes battle to reveal the casino to the world, Joe and his team race across the region, from high-rise Hong Kong to Tokyo’s bustling markets to the covert gambling rings of Osaka. But they are being hunted by elite forces – and it’s only a matter of time before the target on their back catches up with them.
In this perilous quest for the world’s oldest casino, Mason must find the site before his enemies find him. But can he unearth the secrets of the gold in time?
Joe and the others from Quest are back and they’re in for a bit of a whirlwind adventure! They are on the hunt for a mysterious ancient Chinese Casino. Their only leads are a handful of old coins and the bloody trail they have left across the world.
From England to Japan to the USA and China – our plucky band of misfits are determined to outwit (and out muscle) the latest bunch of baddies. The SED are completely horrific and could be the worst in humanity that Joe and the others have had to face so far!
We get to meet another of Quaid’s paramours – that man really is the love ’em and leave ’em type. Roxy is still my favourite of the squad I think, she’s just a powerful woman, unafraid to use her strength and willing to do whatever needs to be done to quell the baddies. But that woman has some major demons and I don’t know if she’ll ever outrun them.
I really do hope we’ll see more of Luciane and Anya!
Ava Bellerose may use men to charge up her healing magic, but that doesn’t mean she wants to date one. She’s fine living life as a single witch working a day job as a college librarian and spending nights as the masked performer Pearl at The Jewelry Box. Every routine on the stage means more magic power in the bank, courtesy of the customers craving her body. One man in particular can’t seem to get enough. Ava finds perverse pleasure in ignoring his money and denying him anything more than a distant dance with zero eye contact. His admiration is intoxicating and the magical boost is all she needs from him. But the guy becomes impossible to ignore when he shows up outside of her apartment.
Their meeting must be fate…
Sammy Reyes can’t believe his luck. While visiting a new build site for work, he spots a heart-shaped behind and a pouty set of lips he’d recognize anywhere. Unfortunately, Pearl–or Ava–seems less than enthused to have her secret identity revealed, even if he promises to take her secret to a watery grave. From her hostile greeting, the gorgeous witch might be the one to bury him at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. But Sammy has spent his whole life charming people, and he’s determined to prove himself as more than a faceless fuel tank of lust. Especially when Ava makes it abundantly clear his money has no sway on her affections.
To woo the librarian, the water elemental will have to dive deeper than his normal surface-level charisma. But just as Sammy starts to show the vulnerable heart behind his confident mask, Ava’s two lives collide in the worst way. Can she risk stepping out from behind her own protective walls, or will she leave him wanting?
Tanya and her K9 partner, Max, need to make an impact on the higher-ups to save her job. Their newest assignment is to go undercover in the small town of Black Rock and unearth a killer.
When she finds a young woman on the edge of death, Tanya cannot believe the lack of impetus from the local law enforcement! The Mayor is a complete sleaze and sees the cops as his own personal protection detail.
Things come to a head when her friend Asha arrives in town and is quickly taken. Now Tanya is making things personal and she wont stop, listen to bogus instructions or stand down until her friend and the other missing persons or their remains are found.
A completely worthy murder mystery to fill a few hours with. Plenty of twists and turns and the internal maelstrom of Tanya’s thoughts and self-recriminations are superb.
OML Craig and Seth have a few mountains to climb to get to their HEA!
Craig lost a mate centuries ago and vowed never to love anyone again. Something he succeeded at until Seth crept under his skin. Seth aka Annaseth is the lead Cynn Mortal and heads up protection for the mortals near to the Faesten. She has overcome a lot of trauma and abandonment issues to get where she did. But sadly the family dysfunction is not yet over and her parental units are going to give her a lot more heartache before the story is over.
Craig is a great second in command to Colin Butler as he has absolutely no desire to be the man in charge. But his temporary promotion is causing more stress and sleepless nights than he planned for.
The Scatha mortals and Cruor are back causing problems and I actually enjoyed the story overlap with the previous book as it was a bit of a brain refresher for me and reminded me of some of the plot points so far. Betrayal is definitely one of the main themes for this book and it was superbly woven through the action. Colin is wallowing a bit in pity at the loss of his brother and Craig feels he needs to be brother/best friend and the boss all at once – he feels really conflicted ordering his boss around!
Military Romantic Suspense Tropes: Bodyguard Romance/Close Proximity/Found Family
Like every hardworking member of Harper Security Ops, Forrest Hickman takes time away from work to relax and recharge. And he often does that while riding his snowboard on the slopes of his favorite ski resort.
He wasn’t sure anything would be better than some time alone to clear his head. That is, until he meets someone to spend his break with.
Daisy Clark is searching for a place to put down roots. And she’s doing that while she tries to get back to some semblance of a normal life. Daisy’s always been an adventure seeker—that’s what got her into this mess—and that adventure leads her to Forrest.
For two weeks, Forrest and Daisy spend time with one another forming a deep connection. And when the time is up, they go their separate ways. But neither forgets about the other.
Then Daisy’s trouble catches up with her.
And that’s when she throws caution to the wind and confides in Forrest. She just hopes that her predicament doesn’t dull the spark between them.
A.K. Evans is a contemporary romance author of over forty published novels. While she enjoys writing a good romantic suspense novel, Andrea’s favorite books to write have been her extreme sports romances. That might have something to do with the fact that she, along with her husband and two sons, can’t get enough of extreme sports.
Before becoming a writer, Andrea did a brief stint in the insurance and financial services industry and managed her husband’s performance automotive business. That love of extreme sports? She used to drive race cars!
When Andrea isn’t writing, she can be found homeschooling her two sons, doing yoga, snowboarding, reading, or traveling with her family. She and her husband are currently taking road trips throughout the country to visit all 50 states with their boys.
Daisy leads a pretty nomadic lifestyle. She has the funds to settle anywhere but so far no single place she visited has called to her. Taking a short holiday in the snow is just what she needs to get over the tragedy she was involved in.
Just when she thinks she’s going to get a bit more adrenaline than she wished for, in skis Forrest to save her. The instant connect between them leads to an short but intense relationship whilst at the resort. But both feel the temptation to say that they feel more but both chicken out!
Then danger comes for Daisy and the first person she thinks of is Forrest. She soon sees that his second family at Harper Security is everything she has been missing in her life.
A brilliant meet-cute, intense, chemistry soaked attraction and some seriously smoking hot passion. They are flirty, funny and when it matters they can cut through the sh1t to the heart of the matter. Daisy could have been a 2D rich girl but she is intelligent, cool, fun, friendly and very down to Earth. Forrest is the perfect mix of protector, friend and lover. The romance definitely takes centre stage in this story and I could have done with a bit more of the actual danger looming but still a great read.
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